Representatives from the Democrats and the Republicans huddle up over the recount of absentee ballots in the City of Saratoga election as they look closely at the City Charter vote and the race for the Public Safety Commissioner Tuesday Nov. 14, 2017 at the Saratoga County Board of Elections offices in Ballston Spa, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/ Times Union) less

Representatives from the Democrats and the Republicans huddle up over the recount of absentee ballots in the City of Saratoga election as they look closely at the City Charter vote and the race for the Public ... more

Photo: SKIP DICKSTEIN

Image 2 of 7

Representatives from the Democrats and the Republicans huddle up over the recount of absentee ballots in the City of Saratoga election as they look closely at the City Charter vote and the race for the Public Safety Commissioner Tuesday Nov. 14, 2017 at the Saratoga County Board of Elections offices in Ballston Spa, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/ Times Union) less

Representatives from the Democrats and the Republicans huddle up over the recount of absentee ballots in the City of Saratoga election as they look closely at the City Charter vote and the race for the Public ... more

Photo: SKIP DICKSTEIN

Image 3 of 7

The recount of absentee ballots in the City of Saratoga election continues as a closer look is made of the City Charter vote and the race for the Public Safety Commissioner Tuesday Nov. 14, 2017 at the Saratoga County Board of Elections offices in Ballston Spa, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/ Times Union) less

The recount of absentee ballots in the City of Saratoga election continues as a closer look is made of the City Charter vote and the race for the Public Safety Commissioner Tuesday Nov. 14, 2017 at the ... more

Photo: SKIP DICKSTEIN

Image 4 of 7

Change advocates say that city projects that have been on hold for more than a decade will finally come to fruition if charter change is enacted.

Change advocates say that city projects that have been on hold for more than a decade will finally come to fruition if charter change is enacted.

SARATOGA SPRINGS - If charter change is approved in November, the City Council might expand from five to seven.

Adding two at-large council members is among the changes that the city's latest Charter Review Commission is considering. Those new council members would not have the administrative duties of the other commissioners, but would have equal legislative powers.

"At this stage, this is just a subject of discussion," said City Attorney Vincent DeLeonardis, chairman of the new Charter Review Commission. "We are getting legal opinions on that and discussing if there is or isn't interest in it."

Critics of this latest charter review group, which is made up of elected officials and their deputy appointees, dispute that two at-large council members would have equal power with council members who head up city departments. They say the idea demonstrates the group's lack of understanding of municipal government.

"They would be junior city council members," said Bob Turner, a political science professor at Skidmore College who was the chairman of 2017's charter review commission. "They will be at a significant disadvantage. It reflects their lack of any kind of research and understanding of the problems inherent with the commission form of government."

The expanded council, as well as other previously considered ideas, will be the topic of discussion at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 21, at a public forum. At the meeting, the Charter Review Commission will present its proposed red-line edits to the current charter and hear public comments.

"We have not yet voted on any changes," DeLeonardis said. "We will continue with the red-line review. We are holding off voting on any changes until after Aug. 21, but we are coming close to when we will need a final draft."

DeLeonardis said a final ballot question on the charter must submitted to the Saratoga County Board of Elections in early September, in time for absentee ballots to go out. He said in October, the charter commission will reach out to voters to educate them on the proposed changes. All changes, he said, will be voted on in a public referendum during the general election on Nov. 6.

While nothing has been decided, DeLeonardis said a lot of the early ideas "to find efficiencies" within the current form of government have been scrapped. He said there seems to be no appetite for term-limits or extending terms beyond the current two years. He said the commission is also rejecting the idea of the mayor doubling as one of the city supervisors serving on the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors.

"There is a potential for a conflict of interest," DeLeonardis said. "The interest of the city and the interest of the county are not always the same."

But changes to the mayor's role, which would limit the office's powers, are still in play. The mayor may lose oversight of the capital budget, the recreation department and human resources. Mayoral appointments might also only be secured by the "advice and consent of the full council," DeLeonardis said.

As for salaries, the commission is considering taking them out of the charter. Right now, all commissioners and the mayor earn $14,500, which is locked into the charter. Salary increases, which would be set and voted on by the commissioners and mayor who would earn them, would only take effect after the next election cycle, DeLeonardis said.

"There is general consensus that the salaries are inadequate," DeLeonardis said. "But any increase could not take affect right away."

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The biggest change would be restructuring the City Council itself, which Turner said, would open up seats to average citizens who don't have expertise in a specific field or time to run a City Hall department, a requirement of being the mayor and a commissioner. But Turner said the change doesn't go far enough.

"There is a reason why no municipality has adopted a commission form of government since the 1940s," Turner said. "You can't fix what is broken with two new council members."

DeLeonardis said the charter commission came to its decisions by consulting City Hall management, former council members, former commission members, including those from 2017, and surveys filled out by a little more than a dozen residents.

All of the 2018 edits to the charter may be moot if the membership of the 2017 charter review commission wins its legal battle for a recount of last November's charter change vote. With 8,906 votes on the matter, 10 more ballots cast were in favor of preserving the current form of government than for changing it. Turner said a Freedom of Information Act request for copies of the ballots is working its way through the state Court of Appeals.

"If the vote recount found the charter won, it would go into effect per the transition plan in the (2017) proposed charter," Turner said. "The new form of government would start in January 2020."